Saturday, the Varsity Hockey team came home to roost after two big road wins last week, welcoming the Walled Lake Northern Knights in the annual Clash for a Cause cancer benefit game supporting the Rainbow Connection. The Eagles donned bright golden jerseys for the game while the Knights wore white and black patterned sweaters. Lakeland split the season series 1-1 last year and were looking for the sweep, while Northern had their sights on breaking up LHS' perfect 15-0 record.

The puck dropped shortly after 6:15 pm and the game took off to a thumping start. Both teams traded chances throughout the first period but it was junior Robby Lewis who inked the first goal of the night when he redirected senior Caleb Kish's wrist shot over the left shoulder of Knight goalie Tristan Ortner. Two minutes later Eagles Timmy Hinkle and Mitchell Beller won a down low battle for the puck, centered to a waiting Luke Weinberger who bunted it 20 feet into the air over Ortner and into the net. Northern had a few chances in the period but senior Jason Slicker kept WLN off of the board. 2-0 after one.

Lakeland began the period killing a penalty (Hinkle 2 minutes for leaning). Slicker was active on the PK and Weinberger and Austin Scanlon ate the puck along the Lakeland student section long enough to ask for seconds as different Knights tagged in and out of the battle. Once back to full strength, Hinkle made a heads-up play to tap the puck to junior D Brendan Day. D-Day snapped the puck to the net and it was Weinberger again finishing the play and beating Ortner on his left. 3-0 after two.

The Knights refused to tighten the reins in the third period as the Eagles moved to lock down the game. Slicker made several point blank saves due to sloppy defense as he worked towards a shutout. Finally with four minutes to go, the WHA line of Weinberger, Hinkle, and Scanlon line wore down the defense with a nifty Scanlon to Hinkle to Weinberger play that we've seen so many times this season.

Slicker came into the game with a ridiculously low 1.49 goals against average and earned his first shutout of the season turning back all 25 WLN shots. 4-0 final score.

Coach Ronayne: "Between the 2nd and 3rd period we talked about how fortunate we are to have not one but two all-state caliber goalies. Jason was on his game tonight and we were happy he got the shutout. Northern has one of the best offensive talents in the league in (Andrew) Evans and to hold him off the board speaks volumes of Jason and our D corps. Weinberger with the hat trick and Hinkle with three assists. A good night."

The teams brought in $4,500 in donations to benefit the Rainbow Connection and each player honored a friend or family member impacted by cancer.

The Eagles go to the annual Chelsea Showcase to put their 16-0 record on the line next week facing the Portage Muskies on Thursday and #10 Marquette on Friday afternoon.